OU Degree 3rd Sem English – Punishment in Kindergarten Poem Questions and Answers & Summary
Comprehension-I.
Question 1.
The speaker of the poem says, “Today the world is a little more of my own”. What does she mean? ‘Little more’ compared to when?
Answer:
Poet Kamala Das is the speaker of the poem and recalls one of her childhood experiences. When she was in the kindergarten, she, along with her schoolmates, went to a picnic to Victoria Gardens in Calcutta. She was all alone near a hedge, while other girls were playing and sipping sugarcane on the lawn.
The insensitive teacher, who is referred to as “a blue-frocked woman”, chided and scolded her for being alone. Her schoolmates laughed at her. The teacher’s words and the laughing faces of her schoolmates hurt her tender heart. She compares her childhood innocence with the matured adult peace. As an adult today, Kamala Das feels that her world is ‘little more’, i.e., broader and matured.
Question 2.
Who was the “blue-frocked woman” and what did she do?
Answer:
In the poem, the teacher of Kamala Das was referred to as the “blue-frocked woman”. The insensitive teacher chided and scolded Kamala Das for being alone. She told the child (Kamala Das), “Why don’t you join the others, what a peculiar child you are!” Her insensitive and indifferent words hurt the tender girl and drained away the ‘honey-coloured peace’ of the picnic day.
Question 3.
The poet uses several expressions such as “blue-frocked” and “honey- coloured”. Find out what such hyphenated words are called and how they are used.
Answer:
In the present poem ‘Punishment in Kindergarten’, Kamala Das uses several expressions such as “blue-frocked”, “honey-coloured”, “sun-warmed”, and “steel- white”. The hyphenated words are compound words and are generally used as adjectives in the poem. The innovative adjectives are usually employed in descriptive writing. Kamala Das is adept in creating language to give expression to her intense personal experience.
Question 4.
Why was the speaker called a “peculiar” girl? What was peculiar about her behaviour? How was she expected to behave?
Answer:
When poet Kamala Das was studying in kindergarten, they went for a picnic to Victoria Garden, Calcutta. The schoolmates were sitting as a group in lawn and sipping sugarcane. But Kamala Das was standing alone near a hedge.
On seeing her, the insensitive teacher (a blue-frocked woman) told her, “Why don’t you join the others, what a peculiar child you are!” The indifferent words of the teacher hurt the tender heart of the child (Kamala Das). Usually, she was expected to behave as the normal children of her age playing with friends, instead of standing all alone.
Question 5.
The speaker uses the “children… laugh in mirth at others’ tears”. Do you agree with the statement? Justify your response.
Answer:
The speaker of the poem ‘Punishment in Kindergarten’ says, “Children are funny things, they laugh in mirth at others’ tears.” The schoolmates of Kamala Das laughed at her when their teacher scolded her for being alone. Hence 1 agree with the statement.
Childhood is the age of innocence since children do not differentiate between good and bad. Especially, when they are in a group, they behave in line with the other children. The speaker of the poem ruminates over the childhood pain with a sense of matured detachment.
Question 6.
Look at expressions such as “throwing words… like pots and pans”, smelt the flowers and the pain”. Can you really ‘throw words’ or smell pain’? Poetry often uses such figurative language. Find out the difference between literal and figurative language.
Answer:
In the poem ‘Punishment in Kindergarten’, Kamala Das uses expressions such as “throwing words… like pots and pans”, smelt the flowers and the pain”. The expression ‘throwing words like pots and pans’ is used to convey how the insensitive words of the teacher caused intense personal pain in the tender heart of the girl. Similarly, ‘smell pain’ is used to explain how the pain is absorbed by the girl deep into her heart.
Question 7.
The speaker says “words are muffled” and “faces only a blur”. What is she referring to? What does she mean?
Answer:
The speaker of the poem says “words are muffled” and “faces only a blur”. Here she is referring to the matured detachment as an adult. When she was a child, she was hurt by the words of her insensitive teacher. Besides the teacher’s words, the laughing faces of her schoolmates added salt to the wound.
Now the words of the teacher are muffled or muted. Similarly, the laughing faces of the schoolmates have become blurring. It means that she starts forgetting the painful childhood experience. She says that she has found ‘adult peace’ and matured detachment as time passes by.
Question 8.
What do the lines “The years… Sadly on” mean? How is the meaning of these lines related to the “adult peace” that the speaker claims to have found?
Answer:
The speaker of the poem says that now the words of the teacher are muffled or muted. Similarly, the laughing faces of the schoolmates have become blurring. It means that she starts forgetting the painful childhood experience. Kamala Das is philosophical about time.
She says that years pass by stopping at beloved halts and moving on sadly. We can understand that time has healed her pain and she is now happy about her childhood experience. She declares that she has now found ‘adult peace’ and matured detachment with the passing of time.
Question 9.
The speaker says that there is “no need to remember” in the first as well as the last stanza of the poem. Is she referring to the same things on both occasions or is there a difference in the meaning?
Answer:
The speaker in the poem repeatedly says that there is “no need to remember” in the first as well as the concluding stanza of the poem. By saying so, she is referring to the same things on both occasions. In the first stanza, she says that there is no need to remember the pain caused by a blue-frocked woman.
But she gives every minute details of the painful experience such as exact words spoken by her teacher, the laughing faces of her schoolmates, the lawn, sipping sugarcane, burying face in the sun-warmed hedge, etc.
In the concluding stanza, she also says that there is no need to remember the picnic day experience. Years pass by still she is able recollect everything that happened on the painful picnic day. The only difference is that she now looks at the painful childhood experience with the matured detachment. She says that she has found ‘adult peace’ with the passage of time.
Question 10.
In the last stanza, the sun is remembered as being “lonely”. Is it in any way related to the speaker’s own condition described in the first stanza? Reflect on the difference between being ‘lonely’ and being ‘alone’ and between ‘loneliness’ and ‘solitude’.
Answer:
In the concluding stanza, the sun is remembered as being “lonely”. It is somewhat related to the speaker’s own condition described in the first stanza when she is standing alone by a sun-warmed hedge. The insensitive teacher is harsh towards the tender girl by saying: “Why don’t yoifljoin the others. What a peculiar girl you are!” for being alone. However in the concluding stanza of the poem, she talks about the steel-white sun standing lonely in the sky. Here the difference between being ‘lonely’ and being ‘alone’ is the difference between ‘loneliness’ and ‘solitude’. Being ‘lonely’ means not being socialised, whereas being ‘alone’ means having own space and enjoying.‘solitude’
Comprehension II.
Question 1.
What is the central idea of the poem, “Punishment in Kindergarten”? How does the poet express it?
Answer:
The poem, “Punishment in Kindergarten” is a little autobiographical poem. Poet kamala Das recalls one of her painful childhood experiences. When she was in the kindergarten, she, along with her schoolmates, went for a picnic to Victoria Gardens in Calcutta. She was all alone near a hedge, while other girls were on the lawn, sipping sugarcane and making merry. The insensitive teacher, who is referred to as”a blue- frocked woman”, chided and scolded her for being alone. The teacher said to her,
‘Why don’t you Join the others, what
A peculiar child you are!’
On hearing this, her schoolmates laughed at her. The child felt it very much. She became sad at the words of the teacher. But the laughter by the children made her sadder. Riled with sorrow and shame, she hid her face in a hedge and wept. This was indeed a painful experience to a little child in the nursery school.
Now she has grown into an adult. She has only a faint memory of the blue- frocked woman and the laughing faces of the children. Now she has learned to have an ‘adult peace’. The subject matter of the poem has two parts: the description of the painful experience of the kindergarten days and the adult’s attitude to die incident at present as an adult. Kamala Das says, ‘My mind has found an adult peace.’ Kamala Das recalls the childhood pain with a sense of matured detachment.
Question 2.
Summarise the speaker’s experience on a picnic day when she was in kindergarten.
Answer: .
The poem, “Punishment in Kindergarten” is a little autobiographical poem. Poet Kamala Das recalls one of her childhood experiences. When she was in the kindergarten, one day the children were taken for a picnic to Victoria Gardens in Calcutta. She was all alone near a hedge, while other girls were sipping sugarcane and making merry at a distance. The insensitive teacher, who is referred to as “a blue-frocked woman”, chided and scolded her for being alone. The teacher said to her,
‘Why don’t you join the others,
what A peculiar child you are!’
On hearing this, her schoolmates laughed at her. The child felt it very much. She became sa 1 at the words of the teacher. But the laughter by the children made her sadder. Filkd with sorrow and shame, she hid her face in a hedge and wept. This was indeed a painful experience to a little child in the nursery school.
Now She has grown into an adult. She has only a faint memory of the blue- frocked woman and the laughing faces of the children. Now she has learned to have an ‘adult peace’. The subject matter of the poem has two parts: the description of the painful experience of the kindergarten days and die adult’s attitude to the incident at present as an adult.
Kamala Das says, ‘My mind has found an adult peace.’ Kamala Das recalls the childhood pain with a sense of matured detachment. The speaker of the poem says,The words are muffled now, the laughing Faces only a blur. The years have Sped along, stopping halts and moving Sadly on.’
She remembers some things clearly, for example, a blue-frocked woman, the exact words spoken by the teacher, her schoolmates sipping sugarcane, etc. She also remembers some other things vaguely. The teacher’s identity gets shrinked to a blue- frocked woman but the words she ‘threw’ at her are still remembered as pots and pans. She is able to forget the muffled words and blurred faces. But she is unable to forget the pain they have left on her. The poet, (the speaker) repeats that there is no need to remember that picnic day.
Question 3.
Discuss the language and images used in the poem to express the emotions of the speaker.
Answer:
In the present poem ‘Punishment in Kindergarten’, Kamala Das employs a simple and lucid language in order to express her intense childhood painful experience. Even the construction of the poem and its colloquial diction are apt for the theme of the poem.
Poet Kamala Das uses several expressions such as “blue-frocked”, “honey- coloured”, “sun-warmed”, and “steel-white”. The hyphenated words are compound words and are generally used as adjectives in the poem. The innovative adjectives are usually employed in descriptive writing. Kamala Das is adept in creating language to give expression to her intense personal experience.
In the poem, the poet uses expressions such as “throwing words… like pots and pans”, smelt the flowers and the pain”. The expression ‘throwing words like pots and pans’ is used to convey how the insensitive words of the teacher caused intense personal pain in the tender heart of the girl. Similarly, ‘smell pain’ is used to explain how the pain is absorbed by the girl. The tone of the poem is pensive if not sad. It is a tone of compromise in the face of inevitability. The images used again are deceptively simple.
The imagery used in the poem is suitable for conveying the intense emotions of the speaker. The images of the ‘blue-frocked woman’, ‘honey-coloured day’, ‘sun-warmed hedge’, ‘smelling flower end pain’ ‘muffled words’, ‘blurring faces’ and ‘steel-white suh standing lonely in the sky’ are relevant and evocative. The figures of speech such as, “throwing words at me like pots and pans” (the simile), “A blue-frocked woman” (the metonymy) add beauty to the poem.
Question 4.
The title of the poem is “Punishment in Kindergarten”. What was the ‘punishment’ given to the girl? And why did she consider it a punishment?
Answer:
The poem, “Punishment in Kindergarten” is a little autobiographical poem. Poet Kamala Das recalls one of her childhood experiences. When she was in the kindergarten, she, along with her schoolmates, went for a picnic to Victoria Gardens in Calcutta. She was all alone near a hedge, while other girls were sipping sugarcane on the lawn and making merry. The insensitive teacher, who is referred to as “a blue-frocked woman”, chided and scolded her for being alone. The teacher said to her,
‘Why don’t you join the others, what
A peculiar child you are!’
On hearing this, her schoolmates laughed at her. The child felt it very much. She became sad at the words of the teacher. But the laughter by the children made her sadder. Filled with sorrow and shame, she hid her face in a hedge and wept. This was indeed a painful experience to a little child in the nursery school.
At surface level, the words of the teacher and laugh of the school children seem normal. We as adult may not consider the experience as a painful one. But at the deeper level, they have caused inexplicable pain to the tender girl who is still at the kindergarten.
It is quite natural that a girl of such age tends to consider the words and the laughing faces as punishment. They are indigestible for her at that time. The speaker is now an adult and is able to look at the experience in matured detachment. She says that she is able to forget the muffled words and blurred faces and found “adult peace” with the passage of time. ‘
Question 5.
Explain the difference between the speaker recounting the incident and the girl who experiences it.
Answer:
Kamala Das is well-known as a confessional poet. It is her brutal frankness of her poetry that shocked and attracted readers. The poem, “Punishment in Kindergarten” is a little autobiographical poem which consists of two time zones- past and present. In the first two stanzas, poet Kamala Dasrecollects the painful experience when she was a child studying at kindergarten.
One particular day, she along with her schoolmates went for a picnic to Victoria Gardens in Calcutta. She was all alone near a hedge, while other children were on the lawn, sipping sugarcane. The insensitive teacher, who is referred to as “a blue-frocked woman”, chided and scolded her for being alone. She said to the girl: ‘Why don’t you join the others, what a peculiar child you are In the concluding stanza of the poem, the speaker recounts the incident again.
Now she says that the teacher’s words are muffled or muted and the laughing’ faces of her schoolmates are blurring. She says that she can forget the painful experience. She feels that she has found ‘adult peace’ and can look at the incident with matured detachment. She is now philosophical in saying that years pass by sadly, with some memorable stops.
Question 6.
While recollecting the picnic day, the speaker remembers some things clearly and others only vaguely. What are the things she is able and unable to forget?
Answer:
In the first as well as the concluding stanza of the poem, the speaker of the poem says that there is “no need to remember” the pain. While recollecting the picnic day experience, the speaker remembers some things clearly and others only vaguely. In the first stanza, she says that there is no need to remember the pain caused by a “blue-frocked woman”.
But she gives every minute details of the painful experience such as exact words spoken by her insensitive teacher, “Why don’t you join the others, what a peculiar child you are!” She also recalls the laughing faces of her schoolmates, the lawn where they are sitting, sipping sugarcane, burying face in the sun-warmed hedge, smelling the flowers and the pain, etc.
In the concluding stanza, she says that there is no need to remember the picnic day experience. But she say feels that the words are muffled and the laughing faces of schoolmates are blurring. The speaker can remember them vaguely. Years pass by still she is able recollect everything that happened on the painful picnic day.
However, she repeatedly says that there is no need to remember the pain caused by her teacher and the laughing faces of her schoolmates. Still she is able to recollect every minute thing in detail. The only difference is that she now looks at the painful childhood experience with the matured detachment. She says that she has found ‘adult peace’ with the passage of time.
Question 7.
The speaker repeats that there is no need to remember that picnic day. Do you think she would ever be able to forget it? Discuss the possibilities either way.
Answer:
In the first as well as the concluding stanza of the poem, the speaker of the poem says that there is “no need to remember” the pain. While recollecting the picnic day experience, the speaker remembers some things clearly and others only vaguely.
In the first stanza, she says that there is no need to remember the pain caused by a “blue-frocked woman”. But she gives every minute details of the painful experience such as exact words spoken by her insensitive teacher, “Why don’t you join the others, what a peculiar child you are!” She also recalls the laughing faces of her schoolmates, the lawn where they are sitting, sipping sugarcane, burying face in the sun-warmed hedge, smelling the flowers and the pain, etc.
In the concluding stanza, she says that there is no need to remember the picnic day experience. But she say feels that the words are muffled and the laughing faces of schoolmates are blurring. The speaker is able remember them vaguely. Years pass by still she is able recollect everything that happened on the painful picnic day.
However, she repeatedly says that there is no need to remember the pain caused by her teacher and the laughing faces of her schoolmates. Still she is able to recollect every minute thing in detail. The only difference is that she now looks at the painful childhood experience with the matured detachment. She says that she has found ‘adult peace’ with the passage of time.
Punishment in Kindergarten Poem Summary in English
Kamala Das (1934-2009) is well-known as a confessional poet. It is her brutal frankness of her poetry that shocked and attracted readers. She writes candidly, making forays into the emotional lives of women.
Her literary works Summer in Calcutta (1965) and The Old Play House and Other Poems (1973) and her autobiographical work My Story (1976) have received great recognition. She published many of her works in Malayalam under the pen name “Madhavikutty”. Kamala Das writes about intensely personal experiences, including her growth into womanhood.
The poem “Punishment in Kindergarten” is a little autobiographical poem written by Kamala Das. In this poem, shere calls one of her childhood experiences. When she was in the kindergarten, she along with her schoolmates wastaken for a picnic to Victoria Gardens in Calcutta.
She was all alone near a hedge, while other girls were sipping sugarcane on the lawn. The insensitive teacher, who is referred to as “a blue-frocked woman”, chided and scolded her for being alone. The teacher told her,
‘Why don’t you join the others, what
A peculiar child you are!’
On hearing this, her schoolmates laughed at her. The child felt it very much. She became sad at the words of the teacher. But the laughter by the children made her sadder. Filled with sorrow and shame, she hid her face in a hedge and wept. This was indeed a painful experience to a little child in the nursery school.
Now she has grown into an adult. She has only a faint memory of the blue- frocked woman and the laughing faces of the children. Now she has learned to have an ‘adult peace’. The subject matter of the poem has two parts: the description of the painful experience of the kindergarten days and the adult’s attitude to the incident at present as an adult. Kamala Das says, ‘My mind has found an adult peace.’ Kamala Das looks at the childhood pain with a sense of matured detachment.
She remembers some things clearly, for example, a blue-frocked woman, the exact words spoken by the teacher, her schoolmates sipping sugarcane, etc. She also remembers some other things vaguely. The teacher’s identity gets degraded to a blue- frocked womanbut the words she ‘threw’ at her are still remembered as pots and pans.
She is able to forget the muffled words and blurred faces. But she is unable to forget the pain they have left on her. The poet, (the speaker) repeats that there is no need to remember that picnic day. Still, she says,
‘The words are muffled now, the laughing
Faces only a blur. The years have
Sped along, stopping halts and moving
Sadly on.’
The poem is very simple in its construction and even colloquial in diction. The tone of the poem is pensive if not sad. It is a tone of compromise in the face of inevitability. The images used again are deceptively simple. The images are evocative yet blurred.
The images of the hedge, the sun and the smell of flower and pain are remarkable and relevant. The figures of speech such as, “throwing words at me like pots and pans” (the simile), “A blue-frocked woman” (the metonymy) add beauty to the poem.
Punishment in Kindergarten Poem Summary in Telugu
ఈ రోజు ప్రపంచము నాది అని అనగలను. ఇక నేను ఆ బాధను గుర్తు చేసుకోవలసిన అవసరము లేదు. ఈ నీలి గౌను వేసుకున్న ఆవిడ చెప్పిన పరుష మైన వాక్యాలు నాకు కుండలు పెనాలు మీద విసిరినంత భాధని కలుగజేసాయి. ఆ దినము అశాంతిని అనుభవించాను. నేను నా తోటి వారితో ఉండకుండా ఆ తోటలో మొక్కల, పొదల మధ్య ఒంటరిగా ఉండి సూర్యకాంతిని వీక్షిస్తున్నాను.
నా తోటి సహ విద్యార్ధులు అందరూ సమూహలుగా విడి వోయి ఆహ్లదము చెరుకురసాన్ని ఆస్వాదిస్తున్నారు. ఆ ఈనందకర వాతావరణంలో పిల్లలు నన్ను చూసి హేళనగా నవ్వి నప్పుడు నా ముఖాన్ని దించుకొని నేను నాలోనే ఉండి పోయాను.
ఇప్పుడు నాకు ఆ వాక్యాలు, పదాలు బాధ పడేటట్లుగా లేవు. ఆ ముఖాలు కూడా మటు మాయమయ్యాయి.చాలా సంవత్సరాలు గడిచాయి. ఇప్పుడు నాకు సంపూర్తిగా శాంతి లభించింది. ఆ బాధాయూతమైన రోజుల్ని గుర్తు చేసుకోనవసరం లేదు. ఆకాశంలో మెరిసే సూర్యుని నేను ఈ తోటలో ఒంటరి, తనంతో చూసి భాద పడే అవసరములేదు.
Punishment in Kindergarten – Kamala Das
Today the world is a little more my own.
No need to remember the pain
A blue-frocked woman caused, throwing
Words at me like pots and pans, to drain
That honey-coloured day of peace.
‘Why don’t you join the others, what —.
A peculiar child you are!’
On the lawn, in clusters, sat my
schoolmates sipping
Sugarcane, they turned and laughed;
Children are funny things, they laugh
In mirth at others’tears, I buried
My face in the sun-warmed hedge
And smelt the flowers and the pain.
The words are muffled now, the laughing Faces only a blur.
The years have Sped along, stopping briefly
At beloved halts and moving Sadly on.
My mind has found An adult peace.
No need to remember
That picnic day when I lay hidden
By a hedge, watching the steel-white sun
Standing lonely in the sky.
Glossary:
